by Ranjit Lal
Carefully she slipped through the gates and, dodging from tree to tree, made her way towards the small cottage with its slate roof and cobalt-blue walls. It seemed to be deserted, though there was laundry was hanging out to dry on a line. The spies were probably out with their equipment, doing their spying. Nonchalantly she broke cover and walked into the little verandah, and peered through the barred window into the living room. It was empty. She knocked. ‘Hey, anyone home? Dr Sham, are you there?’
No answer. Obviously, they were out. Disappointed, Shroom turned and walked up the path towards the gate. And then stiffened as she heard voices and the clop of hooves on the path. She dropped into a ditch running alongside the path and waited. They were probably just guests heading to Emerald Eden. She waited till they came closer and then carefully raised her head for a look. Two of the estate’s pack ponies – Jhumki and Payal – were being led by Mohan, the fellow who worked there, and accompanied by three strangers.
‘Two females, one male,’ Shroom muttered under her breath, wishing she had a recorder and mike like Anantram and Dr Sham. One female was squat and bandy-legged, and had a worried crinkled face. The other was long-legged, pale-faced and had shoulder-length dark-brown hair with maroon tints. She was wearing a snazzy black denim jacket over a cream blouse, black slacks, trainers and lovely silver baalis. She had big dark smudges around her eyes and had not applied any lipstick; she looked tired and harassed. She was carrying a pink bundle, which could only be a baby. The male was tall, wearing a dark-grey floppy hat – rather like hers – and had long arms and legs like a chimpanzee. He looked scruffy, like he hadn’t shaved for days – was he a cut-throat on the run? He shuffled along with a stoop, his hands rammed into his jeans’ pockets. He glanced sideways as he walked past her, and his big black eyes looked at her fixedly but without expression. She quickly ducked. Her cover was blown! But he hadn’t really seen her. He simply shifted his gaze straight ahead to the ground, and trudged on after the women and the ponies.
Suddenly he took off his hat and Shroom gasped. He was bald – just like her! ‘Oh my god, a taklu!’ she whispered, feeling her own hedgehog fuzz and staring at his retreating back. Now this was interesting and worth investigating. Why was he taklu and why hadn’t he shaved and why was he walking as if he had been hypnotized? Had he also escaped from the kingdom of taklus at the hospital? She clambered out of the ditch and followed the group, keeping a safe distance between them and her.
‘How much further?’ she heard the woman in the denim jacket ask Mohan as she handed the baby to the other woman. Shroom grinned. People who came to Emerald Eden were always warned that they would have to walk for an hour and a quarter from the point the taxi dropped them off at Anandpur village – there was no motorable road to get to it – but most ended up grumbling about the hike. And that was why the Geek Empress had built her palace even further up the path – so she could sit and write in solitary splendour, and try to improve (rule, Shroom thought) the lives of the village children in her spare time, or so she said.
Shroom slipped from tree to tree and boulder to boulder as she followed her quarry. She’d been right (but then she always was): the strangers entered the gates of the estate and disappeared down the long green pathway to the office. She waited until she saw them emerge with Megha aunty, while Mohan and the ponies patiently waited outside. Then they went down the steep path towards the cottages and Megha aunty waved and returned to the office. Quivering with curiosity, Shroom made for the house.
Emerald Eden Estate consisted of ten green-painted cottages set well apart from each other down the mountainside. The cottages higher up had a wonderful view of the mountains – the great Himalayas no less. Those lower down shared secrets with the pine and deodar forest that came right up to them and whispered into their windows. It had opened for business just a couple of months ago and so far had attracted only a few visitors. Ajay uncle and Megha aunty, who owned and ran the place, said they were not going to advertise and just let the word spread by mouth.
Shroom sauntered down the path and pushed open the door to the office. A bell tinkled and, from behind her desk, Megha aunty looked up and smiled.
‘So, Special Agent Shroom, what do you have to report for me today?’ she asked, handing her a walnut brownie from a jar. ‘Here, you look in dire need of sustenance. These are delicious!’
‘Thanks. Where’s Ajay uncle?’
‘He’s gone down to town. Our oven blew up yesterday, so he’s gone to get another one.’
‘Oh… well, I followed three strangers and a baby here. Know anything about them?’
Megha aunty nodded slowly. She had bouncy black hair, and wore chunky jewellery. She was comfortable to hug and loved to talk (far too much, the Geek Empress said disapprovingly) and always smelt of fresh bread. ‘Just innocent guests,’ she said. ‘Nothing to worry about.’
‘Hmmm, good. But are you sure? One of them is a taklu and looks like an escaped con…’
Megha aunty nodded again. Then her eyes narrowed and she cocked her head. ‘Have you been running around on your own again?’
‘I’m fine now; I don’t need anyone to…’
Megha aunty smiled and pointed through the open doorway. ‘Then, my dear, who are those two harassed ladies who have just arrived and are standing outside the door?’
Shroom whirled around. Snake-face and Flared-nostrils! They were standing on either side of the door, waiting to take her back. Snake-face had her discarded hat in her hand. Both looked flustered and a little dishevelled.
‘They’re new, aren’t they?’ Megha aunty said sardonically. ‘Poor girls.’
Shroom nodded. Then she grinned, her pale face lighting up. ‘I was just giving them a training exercise, aunty, that’s all!’
‘Hmm, I see. You are a wicked girl, aren’t you, Shroom…’
‘I hate it – they follow me around everywhere!’
‘Well,’ said Megha aunty, ‘you’d better apologize or they are sure to complain to the Geek Empress and then you’ll be in real trouble. You might get grounded again.’
‘Aunty, could I have some more brownies please?’
‘Sure, here’s a bag – why? Oh, I see; bribery, is it?’
Shroom shook her head. ‘No, just something for their trouble.’ She smiled sweetly at the two women outside. ‘Here,’ she offered, ‘these brownies are delicious. Have some.’
‘Rukmini baby, tum aise badmashi nahin karna!’ Snake-face said, shaking her head. ‘Don’t be so naughty. We were looking everywhere for you.’
Shroom turned around and put her hands on her hips. ‘And guess what, Megha aunty?’ she said indignantly. ‘The Geek Empress said she’s got two new teachers coming for her school down in the village, and they will give me lessons too for as long as I’m not allowed to go out. Just imagine! Not one, but two! It’s not fair!’
‘Well, the Geek Empress is a very powerful person, isn’t she? And she wants you to be properly educated.’
‘Just because she’s got her nose in books from morning to evening and is a big writer doesn’t mean I should do the same thing. She doesn’t let me do anything on my own, or go anywhere by myself,’ Shroom complained. ‘But I still manage to!’ she exclaimed with satisfaction, her eyes gleaming.
‘But you love reading too. You’ve read every book around here.’
‘I know, but I like reading on my own! Not if someone tells me to.’
‘Hey, come here, you. Look, your hair’s coming back,’ Megha aunty said softly, pulling Shroom to her and hugging her.
Shroom shrugged. ‘I know. It’ll come back and then they’ll say I need another operation or treatment and cut it off again and I’ll be a ’shroom again. So I don’t care!’
‘You’re a very brave little girl, Shroom, you know that?’
‘I know, I know. Oh, by the way, Dr Sham and Agent Anantram were not in their house. They’re probably out spying on someone with their mikes. So be careful what you say.’
> ‘So you’ve been keeping an eye on them too, I see. Well, they’re probably trying to figure out the code the striated laughing thrushes are using these days. But thanks, I will be careful.’
‘So, which rooms have you given the new guests?’ Shroom asked casually, helping herself to another brownie.
Megha aunty grinned. ‘You want to check them out, don’t you? Just to make sure they’re not CIA, KGB, FBI, CBI, ABC or anything like that?’ She lowered her voice dramatically. ‘They’re in Cottage 105, by the edge of the forest.’
‘Roger, copy that.’ Shroom slithered out through the back door and into the garden. She could hear Megha aunty call the two women inside. She looked around. Megha aunty and Ajay uncle sure knew what a garden should be like. There were flowering bushes growing higgledy-piggledy everywhere, doing their own thing; not serried ranks of neat flower beds in order of height, like in the Geek Empress’s palace garden – those flowers really needed to have their heads chopped off. Here there were apple and pear and peach and apricot and almond trees growing where they wanted, and flocks of slatey-headed parakeets that raided them in total silence. There were vegetables – tomatoes, brinjals, cauliflower and potatoes – as well as gigantic sunflowers and delicious bhutta, which were big favourites with the birds.
Shroom lithely slipped down the path and snuck left towards Cottage 105, staying low behind the flowering bushes. Not for the first time did she wish she had the spy-bird-watchers’ recording equipment; it was amazing how those could pick up sounds. From the pocket of her dungarees, she took out a small pair of binoculars.
The boy was in the verandah, slouched in a chair, staring at the mountains. It was a lovely clear day and in the distance the great Himalayas glittered, stretching silver and blue across the horizon. Beside him was a stroller; the baby was probably in it. Occasionally, the woman came out and said something and then went back indoors. Shroom frowned – they looked like they were unpacking. She must remember to ask Megha aunty how long they would stay. The woman came out again and spoke to the boy. He pushed back his chair and got to his feet. Then he shuffled down the path – towards her. With a squeak of dismay, Shroom slipped behind a craggy peach tree and held her breath as he drew close. He passed her, stomping moodily up the steep path, and made his way towards the dining hall. Whew!
‘Hello, dear, are you Megha’s daughter?’
Shroom swirled. The lady – now holding the baby – was looking at her with a tired smile.
Oh, shit! She’d been caught! ‘Err… hel… hello,’ she stuttered. ‘I was just seeing if there were any pears in this tree.’
‘That’s a peach tree, my dear. What’s your name?’ the lady asked, friendly enough. ‘I’m Kanika and this is Mihika,’ she said, cradling the baby.
‘Hi, I’m Shroom – I mean, Rukmini.’
‘So pleased to meet you, Rukmini,’ the lady said, extending a hand. ‘So you are Megha’s little girl?’
‘No, I just live around here… The baby is sweet.’
The baby was staring at Shroom out of enormous black eyes, and reached out with one chubby hand for her binoculars. Then the maid stepped into the balcony and called out.
‘Oh, I’d better go,’ the lady said. ‘Mihi’s feed is ready. Bye – I expect we’ll meet again.’
‘Bye… nice meeting you. Enjoy your stay.’
The lady went back to the cottage, and Shroom glanced up the path. The surly boy had come out of the dining hall and was about to come down the path. Shroom fled to the back of the cottage. She’d wait till he went inside and then go up. Not that it made much of a difference now – the lady would tell him about her. Maybe he was an assassin or an escaped convict, and the lady and baby and maid were just a cover. But was the lady his wife or sister or mother? Probably mother, though she didn’t seem to be all that older than him.
Shroom needed to be careful. She ducked behind a big bed of sunflowers. The boy stomped back to the verandah and slouched back into his chair. Then the lady joined him and put her hand on his shoulder. ‘Isn’t it beautiful here?’ she said. ‘Aren’t you glad we came? Far away from all that…’
‘I want to kill them!’ the boy said viciously. ‘I want to kill them all!’
‘Shush, darling, you shouldn’t talk like that… Just look at these mountains; they’re magnificent, aren’t they?’
‘Those bloody assholes – from top to bottom, I want to get rid of them all!’
‘Darling, did you see a little girl here, wearing a camouflage hat?’
‘All those bastards think about is their own asses. What kind of country is this? World’s biggest democracy – hah! What a joke!’
‘Beta, just try and forget it now…’
The baby let out a wail. The lady, looking troubled, turned and went inside. Shroom trained her binoculars on the boy’s face. It was thunderous with anger. But as she continued to look, she saw his eyes fill with tears. For a few minutes his shoulders trembled and he put a hand in front of his face. Then suddenly he wiped his eyes and swallowed. He picked up a sketch pad that had been lying on the table, flipped it open and started sketching furiously.
Shroom swallowed, surprised by the sudden lump that had risen in her own throat. For a second she felt a little dizzy, and then shook her head to clear it of the wooziness. Something bad was in the air… Something rotten and poisonous had just arrived at Emerald Eden. And as Special Agent Shroom it was her job to find out what it was.
THREE
‘Rukmini – how many times have I told you not to give these girls the runaround?’ The Geek Empress stood tall and angular in front of Shroom, disapproval radiating from every line on her face. Like always, she was dressed in an off-white khaddar salwar-kameez and dupatta, and her silver-grey hair was swept back tightly. She was becoming just a little hard of hearing – which could be a good thing sometimes – but her shimmering grey eyes missed nothing.
‘I wasn’t giving them the runaround, nani,’ Shroom muttered, staring at the bright green rug on the floor. ‘I was just showing them around. Showing them all the places I go to – the waterfall and Hourglass Gorge and the path and Megha aunty’s place…’
‘Then why did they come here saying you’d suddenly disappeared? I had to send them to Megha’s to look for you.’
‘Well then, they should just train better. It’s not my fault they can’t even keep up with a twelve-year-old girl who’s been vitally sick. You should have sent Tinku with them; she would have found me.’ Stretched out on the warm floor, the pretty black and rust Bhutiya-mix thumped her tail on the floor.
‘That’s enough, Rukmini. You will apologize to Gudiya and Savita, and I don’t want this sort of thing happening again. You know they’re there for your own good. And stop rolling your eyes when I’m talking to you.’
‘I’m not, and I apologized already – I gave them brownies. You can ask Megha aunty.’
‘One more thing: you’re to be here at four sharp. I’ll be meeting those two girls – the teachers who will be helping you – and I want them to meet you.’
‘Jawhol, mein capitan!’
‘What did you say?’
‘Nothing, nani…’
‘Now go to your room and tidy up. Have you seen the state of your dungarees! Just what have you been doing?’
‘Can I stand easy? Am I dismissed?’
‘What? Yes, yes, now go…’
Shroom climbed up the narrow stairs and walked down the corridor to her room. It stretched across the width of the east wing of the house, with the roof sloping down on either side from the middle. Painted a warm sunflower-yellow, it had big windows that ran right across and lent a glorious view of the great mountains. How she had missed her room nearly all of last year and the year before when she was in and out of hospital.
Whatever else the Geek Empress might have done, she had chosen the site for her palace well and generously given Shroom the best room. To the north and east the mountainside fell almost sheer into a densely for
ested valley, and the house had a magnificent panorama of the Himalayas from its north-, east- and west-facing windows. To the south, the mountain stood majestically behind the house. A steep forty-foot earth and rock bank, thickly festooned with ferns and rhododendron bushes, rose at the edge of the garden to a narrow path – usually used by Shroom as an escape route. A ten-foot high stone wall ran alongside this path, on the other side of which the stream gurgled and splashed on its way to Hourglass Gorge and the waterfall, further east. From the south-easternmost corner of the garden, you could actually see the waterfall, and during the rains its thunderous roar was a constant background refrain. To the west, and to one side of the house, another smaller tributary of the stream rushed down, over the bridge which led to the property and which had a stone guardhouse at its far end.
Shroom opened the windows and flung herself on her bed, scowling. Why the hell couldn’t the Geek Empress loosen up a little? She was always so uptight. Why couldn’t she laugh like Megha aunty did? Maybe it was because mama and papa had died, although that happened so long ago Shroom didn’t remember them at all. The Geek Empress had been left holding the baby, and three or four years later Shroom had fallen ill. Perhaps the Geek Empress had never really cared for children, or at least grandchildren; all she cared about was her writing. And she was always busy opening schools all over the hills where, no doubt, little children were terrorized and tortured. But for the last two years, the Geek Empress’s routine – and geek work – had been completely upset because of Shroom’s illness. And now, in revenge, she had employed not one but two teachers to harass her. They’d probably be on her case all day – they and the two minders. Shroom realized she had missed a lot of school and wouldn’t be going back for quite a while – perhaps never – but still, it wasn’t fair to have two teachers nagging you. Shroom jumped to her feet. ‘Heil Hitler!’ she shouted, snapping a salute in front of the large mirror, and then dropped back onto the bed.